Wins and losses in 2019’s preservation battles

2019: Year in Review

December 26, 2019 Lore Croghan

One of Brooklyn’s 2019 preservation battles included the fight against the demolition of the Lidgerwood Building (at left). Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

A lot happened in Brooklyn this year — from environmental policies to infrastructure changes to housing reform. We’ve wrapped up the key pieces for you in “2019: Year in Review.”

Brooklyn’s preservation advocates fought hard in 2019 against the threatened demolition of historically significant properties, and sought to win city landmark designation for beloved buildings and neighborhoods.

There were triumphs and tears — and a significant amount of unfinished business the Brooklyn Eagle will keep an eye on going forward.

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The importance of city landmarking extends far beyond the honor and distinction it bestows on Brooklyn’s built environment. Individual landmarks and buildings in historic districts cannot be torn down, nor can their exteriors be changed in major ways, unless the city Landmarks Preservation Commission gives its approval.

Here’s a recap of our biggest preservation stories over the past year.

The S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse, which originally was a processing site for hay, feed and grain for New York City’s horses, was eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

The coalition tried to get the Landmarks Preservation Commission to put the storehouse on its calendar for designation consideration. But the LPC didn’t help them. The iconic canalside building was doomed.

The city Buildings Department gave the storehouse’s owner, the Chetrit Group, a demolition permit in February 2019. The city agency halted the demolition at various times with Stop Work Orders. But on Labor Day, workers ripped the roof off the historic building and knocked down nearly all that was left of the property.

As a complicating factor in the fight to preserve the S.W. Bowne Grain Storehouse, there had been a deliberately set two-alarm “incendiary fire” (which is how the FDNY described it to the Eagle) at the old grain storehouse at 595 Smith St. in June 2018. The investigation into the fire remained open for many months. Preservationists told the Eagle the Landmarks Preservation Commission won’t calendar a property that’s the subject of an open investigation.

In late summer 2019, after the FDNY closed its investigation into the Bowne building blaze, a Bureau of Fire Investigation report revealed that a red plastic gas container holding a mixture of ethanol and gasoline was found on the property after the conflagration.

Also, during the fire, a hydrant at the scene wasn’t working correctly. A firefighter opened the hydrant and found it was stuffed with a brick and screws.

There were no security cameras at 595 Smith St. at the time of the fire — and no suspects were identified, the report indicated.

Loss: The Masonic Club in Bay Ridge

In the spring 2019, Bay Ridge preservation advocates tried in vain to stop the demolition of the former Masonic Club at 7604 Fourth Ave. In recent years, the eye-catching Victorian wood-frame house with a turret had been used as a nursery school.

This is Bay Ridge’s former Masonic Club, which was demolished. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

But the developer who had purchased it in 2017 tore it down and posted a design drawing showing a modern apartment building on the fence around the property.

Win: The Sunset Park Historic Districts’ designation

Grassroots groups in Sunset Park spent three decades trying to get the Landmarks Preservation Commission to honor their neighborhood’s working-class homes by creating a historic district there. Sunset Park’s historic two-family brownstone, limestone and brick rowhouses were constructed between 1885 and 1912 for immigrants and today house a vibrant community with a large immigrant population.

This block is in one of Sunset Park’s historic districts, which were designated in 2019. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

In recent years, a group called the Sunset Park Landmarks Committee led the campaign for historic district designation.

Win: The Doctor’s Row Historic District’s designation

Bay Ridge residents have loved and appreciated Doctor’s Row for decades. Dignified, century-old limestone rowhouses line this Bay Ridge Parkway block between Fourth and Fifth avenues. Many of these homes have medical offices in them.

Doctor’s Row in Bay Ridge became a historic district in 2019. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

At a Landmarks Preservation Commission hearing in May 2019, State Sen. Andrew Gounardes, City Councilmember Justin Brannan and Community Board 10 Zoning Committee Chairperson Brian Kaszuba expressed support for the measure.

Win: The Towers’ adaptive reuse

In November 2019, the owners of a former 1920s Brooklyn Heights Historic District hotel called The Towers showed the Eagle the progress they’ve made in painstakingly rebuilding it as upscale housing for seniors.

The Towers, which was a hotel, is being turned into an upscale seniors housing complex called The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

Starrett and Van Vleck, the architecture firm that designed The Towers, also designed Saks Fifth Avenue’s and Lord & Taylor’s Manhattan flagship stores.

The Watermark at Brooklyn Heights is expected to open in March 2020. It will have 29 independent-living units, 204 assisted-living units and 42 memory-care units for residents with cognitive impairment such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

Win: The Lidgerwood Building

The Lidgerwood Building at 202 Coffey St. is the pride of the Red Hook waterfront.

The red-painted brick 1880s foundry and other historic industrial buildings form a semi-circle around Louis Valentino Jr. Park and Pier and give the park a unique sense of place.

UPS decided to demolish the Lidgerwood Building in 2019 as part of a plan to construct a multi-block distribution facility. Community activists couldn’t get company executives to hear them out about their hopes the Valentino Park-facing side of the Lidgerwood Building would be preserved.

UPS has torn down modern industrial buildings on the rest of the Red Hook site and is doing environmental cleanup. The company expects to start work on the Lidgerwood Building’s preservation in the first quarter of 2020.

Question mark: The proposed East 25th Street Historic District

In fall 2019, members of the 300 East 25th Street Block Association in Flatbush asked the Landmarks Preservation Commission to consider turning East 25th Street between Avenue D and Clarendon Road into a small historic district.

Residents of this East 25th Street block want it to be designated as a historic district. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

They fear developers will buy and tear down some of their 110-year-old limestone and brownstone rowhouses and thereby mar the area’s visual harmony.

Block association President Julia Charles is leading the landmarking campaign, which has the support of City Councilmember Farah Louis. Kelly Carroll of the Historic Districts Council is assisting the block association in its efforts.

The residents’ landmarking push also has the support of Brooklyn Botanic Garden’s head honcho, Scot Medbury. They’ve won the garden’s annual Greenest Block in Brooklyn competition four times since 2004.

If the landmarking campaign proves successful, this will be the first historic district in Flatbush that is populated by rowhouses rather than Victorian stand-alone suburban-style homes with lawns.

Question mark: Walt Whitman’s house

Walt Whitman’s fans celebrated his 200th birthday in 2019. A group of them campaigned for landmark status for the only New York City house he lived in that’s still standing. The campaign is ongoing.

The rowhouse at right is 99 Ryerson St., where famous poet Walt Whitman lived. Photo: Paul Frangipane/Brooklyn Eagle

Whitman, widely considered America’s greatest poet, lived at 99 Ryerson St. in Clinton Hill when he published the first version of “Leaves of Grass” in 1855. This ground-breaking volume of verses revolutionized American poetry. He was the Eagle’s editor in the 1840s.

In June 2019, Walt Whitman Initiative board member Brad Vogel and other supporters of landmark designation for Leaves of Grass House gave surprise testimony about 99 Ryerson St. at an LPC hearing about other properties.

Later that summer, New York University Professor Karen Karbiener, who’s the president of the Walt Whitman Initiative, led students from Columbia University on a pilgrimage to Brooklyn places that were important to the poet’s life. It culminated with a stop in front of the modest, siding-covered rowhouse at 99 Ryerson St.

The new street sign stands at the intersection of DeKalb Avenue and Ryerson Street across from Pratt Institute.

Question mark: The Abolitionists’ house

In 2019, a group called the Circle for Justice Innovations led a campaign for landmarking 227 Duffield St., a Downtown Brooklyn house where prominent abolitionists Thomas and Harriet Truesdell lived before the Civil War. That campaign is ongoing.

This house is 227 Duffield St., where Abolitionists lived. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle

The house’s late owner, Joy Chatel, believed it was used by the Underground Railroad to assist slaves escaping to freedom.

The house is threatened with demolition. The developer who owns it plans to tear it down and construct a 13-story apartment building.

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The Brooklyn Daily Eagle and brooklyneagle.com cover Brooklyn 24/7 online and five days a week in print with the motto, “All Brooklyn All the Time.” With a history dating back to 1841, the Eagle is New York City’s only daily devoted exclusively to Brooklyn.